When mobile communication devices first became available to the general public they had very limited functionality. For example, the first devices merely transmitted text or voice signals. However, as technology has advanced, such devices have followed suit. Additionally, and somewhat in parallel, the number of mobile device applications has been rapidly growing since the inception of the first personal digital assistant (PDA). For example, at first, PDAs were simply used to manage contacts, to-do collections, and calendars; however, eventually they grew to provide nearly unlimited functionality as the number of applications grew.
Today, modern mobile devices, including cell phones, resemble advanced PDAs with voice, text, and/or data transmissions, as well as numerous applications for doing just about anything one could imagine. Thus, in today's world of ever-increasing mobility, it is no surprise that there are literally hundreds of thousands of mobile device applications. For example, one mobile device application provider touts that they offer over two hundred thousand applications for a single device.
As such, mobile device users may be overwhelmed when searching for applications for their devices. For example, if a user begins a search for a document reader application, they may find over fifty results, many of which have excellent, and similar, ratings. As such, finding mobile device applications may be confusing and time consuming. Unfortunately, current systems are not equipped to help users easily track down the best applications in an easy and efficient manner.